The invention concerns a valve assembly having a valve body for filling and emptying a vehicle tire and having a measuring device for measuring the vehicle tire pressure, in which the measuring device is prevented by a locking means from performing an axial movement in a pulling direction pointing away from the valve body on the measuring device, the locking means comprising at least one profile element having at least one fixing element engaging the valve body.
A valve assembly is described for example in EP 0 751 017 B1. With the known valve assembly, the housing of the measuring device is braced against the valve body from the interior of the wheel by means of a fixing screw. A disadvantage here is the time-consuming fitting operation, as the fixing screw must be guided in a poorly accessible region through a housing opening in the measuring device and screwed into an internal thread of the valve body. Further, the high weight of the fixing screw is a disadvantage, which must be compensated by corresponding balance weights.
Apart from fixing the measuring device to the valve body of a vehicle tire valve by means of a fixing screw, valve assemblies in which the valve body is partially surrounded by the housing of the measuring device by injection moulding and the measuring device is in this way prevented from performing an axial movement relative to the valve body are used. This known embodiment has a lower weight than the previously described embodiment with fixing screw. A disadvantage is, however, that the known valve assembly is comparatively inflexible to use, as the valve body must be fixed to the measuring device already during manufacture of the housing of the measuring device. At a later time, when fitting the valve assembly in the vehicle wheel, use of an alternative valve body with the finished measuring device is then no longer possible.
In DE 10 2006 043 873 A1, as in similar embodiments of DE 10 2004 048 244 A1 or DE 196 13 936 A1, a valve body is mounted on a measuring device by means of a clip which must be introduced into a recess of the valve body radially to the axis of the valve body only after passing the valve body through a housing of the measuring device—for this purpose, for example, a standard C clip or E clip is clipped onto the valve body. Here too, fitting is comparatively time-consuming.
EP 1 736 328 A1 discloses a measuring device of which the housing attachment, which is constructed as a snap-fit element, can be introduced into a collar opening in the valve body by radial bending and engage behind the collar, the collar and the snap-fit element being coordinated with each other, which makes the assembly disadvantageously inflexible.
It is therefore the object of the invention to propose a valve assembly which on the one hand is flexible to use and can be fitted in an improved manner and in which on the other hand the locking means has a low weight. Further, the objects consists of providing a kit for a valve assembly of this kind.